


this awful energy

by darlingargents



Series: Ladies Bingo 2017/2018 [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: ladiesbingo, Gen, Jedi Leia Organa, Leia Organa's Anger Issues, Podfic Available, Sparring, Twinswap, local farmgirl is pissed at the empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 16:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13485345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents
Summary: Leia needed discipline. She needed to control her emotions. She needed less fury in general, and especially less fury guiding her decisions and life. That was dangerous. That was a path to darkness.





	this awful energy

**Author's Note:**

> So earlier this year I signed up for [Ladies Bingo](https://ladiesbingo.dreamwidth.org/) and got a card and got super excited about it and then kinda... forgot. So. I'm trying to actually start doing this now. Good luck to me, I guess. This prompt is **Unnecessary Force** , and I blame the fact that I started writing this at 1am that I didn't think of the other potential uses of that prompt for a Star Wars fic -- like, Jesus Christ, I just totally missed an opportunity? But oh well.
> 
> Title from Control by Halsey.

“That was _excessive_ ,” said Ahsoka, glaring up at Leia from her position on the floor. She was still out of breath; Leia’s saberstaff hit to her stomach had knocked the breath out of her completely. It was, admittedly, a very good hit, and she hadn’t seen it coming.

But still. Excessive.

“Remember who your teacher is here,” she said, half-teasing, as she stood and grabbed her practice saberstaff off the floor. It had flown out of her had at Leia’s hit. Leia rolled her eyes, all teenage boredom and self-assurance.

“Yeah, I know.” Leia got into a defensive stance, and Ahsoka gave her a moment — and let herself recover slightly more — before striking again. The clacking of the wooden staffs against each other was loud in the quiet of the training room, the sounds reverberating off the metal walls and hurting Ahsoka’s oversensitive lekku a bit. She tried to block it out, and focus on the spar. Predicting Leia’s moves. Keeping a clinical eye on her movements, the way her muscles moved when she took each strike.

Leia was full of energy. Practically bleeding it from every pore. Passion and dedication and _rage_ , rage against the empire. Ahsoka knew the reason Leia had hit so hard. In her eyes, this deep into practicing, Ahsoka wasn’t her mentor and friend. She was a faceless soldier, just like the ones who destroyed her life. Killed her aunt and uncle and caused her to run. Straight into Ahsoka.

Ahsoka was, in some ways, grateful for Leia. Having another Jedi around after so long was wonderful. But she wished it hadn’t been at the cost of Leia’s family and life.

After another half hour of sparring, she called an end, and Leia, clearly wishing for more, let out an irritated huff and flounced off, throwing her saberstaff against the wall as she left the training room. She’d thrown the staff so hard that it Ahsoka felt a need to check it for cracks, and she let out a sigh.

Excessive. Unnecessary. Leia needed discipline. She needed to control her emotions. She needed less fury in general, and especially less fury guiding her decisions and life. That was dangerous. That was a path to darkness. Ahsoka could see it plain as day: if Leia couldn’t learn to manage her emotions and give herself a purpose other than blind rage, she would keep lashing out, and it would be far, far worse than simply hitting Ahsoka too hard during a spar or breaking a practice saberstaff.

Ahsoka put away the saberstaffs, and went to Leia’s room, knocking on the door before opening it. Leia was clearly hunting down her things for a shower. “Come on,” she said. “Meditation.”

Leia looked at her, one eyebrow raised. A trick that Ahsoka admired, though Leia could only do it on one side. “Now? Can’t I shower first? I feel gross.”

Ahsoka took Leia’s hand and pulled her into the hallway and into the training room. “A little sweat is nothing, Leia. I’ve been deployed for weeks without so much as a convenient river to jump into. You’ll live.”

“You don’t have _hair_ ,” Leia muttered, but sat down obediently across from Ahsoka and closed her eyes, moving into a meditative state quicker than Ahsoka would’ve thought. Huh.

Ahsoka knew she needed to meditate too, but she waited a moment, watching her charge for a moment. Like this, Leia looked like any Jedi padawan. Young. Carefree. Ready to take on the world of responsibilities.

Ahsoka wished, not for the first time, that she was Leia’s master back in the old days. When there were still other Jedi to help her, to guide her as a master and help with Leia’s training. Now it was just her, and what she remembered. It was lonely. And when she saw the frightening intensity and force that Leia put into everything, it was almost scary.

But those days were long over. She would do what she could.

Ahsoka closed her eyes, and emptied her mind.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] this awful energy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15320436) by [darlingargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents), [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins)




End file.
